Truth, Not Destiny
by Emony1
Summary: Missouri Mosely knew hunters. Missouri Mosely knew hunting. Most of all Missouri Mosely knew being hunted. Crossover with Supernatural.


Title: Truth, Not Destiny  
Author: Emony  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters/Pairings: Missouri Mosely and Dawn Summers.  
Disclaimer: All things SPN belong to Eric Kripke, et al. All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, et al.  
Team/Challenge: Team Roadhouse - #2 - Green.  
Word Count: 1,160.  
Summary: Missouri Mosely knew hunters. Missouri Mosely knew hunting. Most of all Missouri Mosely knew being hunted.

* * *

Missouri Mosely knew hunters. Missouri Mosely knew hunting. Most of all Missouri Mosely knew being hunted.

From her early teenage years she was hunted. Hunted for her gifts. Hunted to 'help' those less fortunate than herself. Her mother was gone, couldn't cope with the hunting, wanted to give her up. Her father had long since put his foot down; no one was going to get his girl.

They had moved constantly, her and her father. The ruse was her father looking for work. Something that was hard for him to find in those years.

They always knew when it was time to move on, _she_ always knew. She could feel them, the Watcher's Council, coming for her each and every time. They said they were the good guys, that first time they'd showed at the front door, when she hadn't known what that crawling feeling was. That they were lying was shouted so loud through her head that she had been able to convince her parents to sneak her out whilst the Watchers awaited a decision. That she wouldn't be the first girl stolen from life, wouldn't be the first at all, she wasn't even the main goal, was just the tool to further the weapon, reverberated through her mind.

Until her 21st birthday.

It just stopped. Finished. Ended. Was no more.

She kept on running a few more years just to make sure. And she was sure the day one of those men who had spent years chasing her walked right past her as if she wasn't there. She was too old, couldn't be moulded anymore, too strong, useless to the cause.

She'd stopped then. Settled down in the town where her freedom came. Lawrence, Kansas. The town that would be her doing and undoing.

She learnt. She learnt everything she could about the darkness, the supernatural. She put that learning to good use. Not by hunting, that was never her role.

She taught and she helped. Like the Watchers' had wanted her to do. She did it her own way. Set herself up as a psychic, a palm reader. Even put herself in the phonebook.

She waited. It wasn't yet time.

Then the Winchester's. That poor, poor family. The wife, mother, taken so young, the boys lost without a mother, the husband lost without a wife, a purpose. She gave him that purpose, gave him the truth, knowing what she knew, the darkness, the supernatural. She put him and his boys on that path. It was the most painful thing in the world, to do that to those boys, those men.

She deals in truth, not destiny. Just sometimes it ends up being the same thing.

* * *

Years passed. She taught and she helped. Gave readings day in and day out. Fielded phone calls from John, Daniel, Bill... and then Ellen, Bobby and an odd call from a few others.

Through it all she kept her ears to the ground. Heard about the vampires, not the breed Daniel hunted, the other kind. She heard about the sleepy little town of Sunnydale. Kept herself in the know, not everything, just enough to know she would be safe and little enough that she kept herself off of any radar.

There were whispers of strange vampires. Of more girls dying than usual.

Then Sunnydale was gone.

That old feeling flashed in and out. More nervous than usual she kept up her routine.

The nerves faded into the background as the Winchester boys flared onto the scene. As John appeared once again at her door. As that demon made itself known again. Little Dean and Sammy weren't so little anymore.

She couldn't give them what they needed. She taught them, she even helped a little. Pushed them in the direction they were already headed.

She deals in truth, not destiny. Just sometimes it ends up being the same thing.

* * *

It was a day when the nerves weren't there. She'd just seen Mrs Barber; the poor woman's husband was messing around with the Nanny. She'd spoken to Ellen on the phone, Jo was still absent. She wasn't about to tell a Harvelle that the other was having demon problems, not ones that couldn't be helped.

A knock came at the door. The first knock she hadn't expected since she was twelve years old. Yet, somehow, that didn't feel out of the ordinary.

The world was green for a moment, then she blinked and a teenage girl was before her. Through her shock she found some manners and brought the girl in and into the room she used for her readings.

For the first time she made up a fortune without knowing the truth behind it. The girl laughed, said she didn't need a tall, dark and handsome stranger to come in and save her from herself and the dark. She could do that just fine by herself, thank you very much. Then she'd rolled her eyes and added in that if she couldn't she had plenty of people that would do it for her.

They had sat in silence for a while. Missouri attempted to think of something to say. Wondering why this wasn't scaring her. The girl broke it with a question, just one word.

"Green?"

"Excuse me?

"That's what you saw right? When you answered the door." She gestured towards the doorway as she spoke.

Missouri nodded. That was all she could do.

"You live in this world, but not. Outside of reality. You see me, both me's."

"Yes." Because it was the truth, even if she didn't know why.

"I'm glad you ran."

Silence again, because what do you say to someone who knows that much of your life with just a glance?

"Dawn Summers."

"The sister?"

The girl sighed, "That's me."

Missouri moved, almost without thought, away from the girl.

"I'm nothing to be scared of. Although I get why you are, I would be if I was you. I mean, some girl turns up on your doorstep, the first you can't read in forever and then announces she's the sister of Buffy Summers?"

The girl waits a beat, and then starts again.

"They're not like that anymore. The Watcher's Council. I know it really doesn't look like it. I mean, who do they send but me, the only one you couldn't possibly get a read off. The only one you couldn't tell truth from lies. But it was the only way to make first contact. The only way you wouldn't run before we could say anything."

Dawn Summers, something even more outside reality than she has ever been, stands and puts a card on the table.

"It was nice meeting you, Missouri Mosely."

She taps the card with a green fingernail.

"Have a think about it. We deal in truth, not destiny. Just sometimes they turn out the same."

And with that she was out the door and the world once again flashed green for a second.

End ficlet.


End file.
